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Topic: What works perfectly fine for you even though it goes against prevailing advice? (Read 50191 times)

This is sort of a spinoff of the "dish you haven't been able to master" thread.

Two things that came up in that thread:

Grating the entire wedge of parmesan cheese which goes against the prevailing advice of grating it only seconds before using it. As long as you use up the grated cheese in a reasonably quick amount of time, it's fine.

Cooking with wine you don't like to drink. I do it. It's not as if when I cook with wine, it is the dominant flavor. Not even close. Cooking with wine I don't like is exactly what I do if I buy a bottle and it's not exactly to my taste. I've never had a problem doing it.

And here's another one. Throw out your spices after a year. No way!! Sure they might gradually lose flavor/potency as time goes on but then ok, just maybe use a little more if it's not as strong as it should be. Throw it out? Ummm... I'm not in the habit of throwing out perfectly good food just because the spice companies want me to buy more of their product!

So...what things do you do that "they" say not to? Note, all my examples have to do with cooking because that's where my mind was but you don't have to stick to that!

I agree that some advice is for "optimum" experience like the cheese and herb issue. Sure the bottle of freshly opened dried oregano is going to be fresher and stronger than the year old stuff, but I can probably adjust the amount I use to get the best taste. Same with the frozen parm. If it's the "star" of the show and not being heated in any way, freshly grated will taste better. But if I'm mixing it in with breadcrumbs and butter to sprinkle on top of mac&cheese, very few people will be able to taste the difference.

Mine is washing colors and whites separately. With most clothing dyes today, they are pretty well set after a few washes. So I have no problem washing my white tshirts and socks with my black yoga pants, colored tshirts, and pink undies.

Mine is washing colors and whites separately. With most clothing dyes today, they are pretty well set after a few washes. So I have no problem washing my white tshirts and socks with my black yoga pants, colored tshirts, and pink undies.

I wash all sorts of "dry clean only" stuff on cold and the delicate cycle, and then hang or flat dry it. If it were silk or wool, I'd follow the instructions, but I don't have the budget to own much of that--and I am so not going to the dry cleaner's just for polyester.

I think the wine advice got misunderstood somewhere. You shouldn't cook with wine that is not of drinking quality, not wine you wouldn't drink because you just don't like the flavor. They mean different things. The wine advice is really referring to not using cheap nasty stuff that is labeled as "cooking wine" and since it's usually is shelved with the vinegar, that should tell you something.

I also don't separate my colors either as I just wash everything in cold . I do separate my delicate weight items and either do a separate load or toss them in a lingerie bag. I do wash new brightly colored items alone and with white vinegar to help set the colors.

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Meditate. Live purely. Quiet the mind. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine. ---Gautama Buddah

I thaw poultry on the counter. Why? A frozen chicken would take a week to thaw in the fridge, and you're only supposed to keep chicken in the fridge for four days. I do ensure the chicken never thaws all the way to room temp on the counter though.

Mine is washing colors and whites separately. With most clothing dyes today, they are pretty well set after a few washes. So I have no problem washing my white tshirts and socks with my black yoga pants, colored tshirts, and pink undies.

I wash all sorts of "dry clean only" stuff on cold and the delicate cycle, and then hang or flat dry it. If it were silk or wool, I'd follow the instructions, but I don't have the budget to own much of that--and I am so not going to the dry cleaner's just for polyester.

When I brought in a dress with a 'dry clean only' tag, a local dry cleaner actually told me that the dress was perfectly safe to machine wash. It was. May I say that her place has been our dry cleaner of choice ever since.

I do the same, EMuir. I thaw almost everything on the counter. What I'll sometimes do is take it out when I get home from work the evening before I want to cook it, leave it on the counter until bedtime then stick it in the fride. And then it is perfectly thawed for the next day when I go to use whatever it is.

They also say that you should immediate remove all stuffing once you are done cooking. We never do that. The rest of the stuffing gets removed when the bird is being deconstructed and not before.

Any herbs I grow myself do generally get pitched after a year because I've grown a fresh crop but anything else? I use it until it is done. If the flavour has faded a bit, I just use more, to taste.

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After cleaning out my Dad's house, I have this advice: If you haven't used it in a year, throw it out!!!!.

We also, at least partially, thaw meat and poultry on the counter. We have small utility room where our furnace and hot water heater are located. That's also a place we use for thawing. Meat certainly goes into the fridge overnight but, when we're home to monitor it, the counter or the utility room works just fine.

We also, at least partially, thaw meat and poultry on the counter. We have small utility room where our furnace and hot water heater are located. That's also a place we use for thawing. Meat certainly goes into the fridge overnight but, when we're home to monitor it, the counter or the utility room works just fine.

Mine gets thawed in the microwave--not in an 'on' microwave, just, in the microwave.Because it's the only cat-proof 'counter' space in the house.

I wash a lot of my dry clean only clothes. Not all at the same time and not most favorite super expensive things but at $3 per item a suit and blouse would be $9 I'll try washing the blouse and dryell the suit a couple of times.

I don't tend to toss spices except rarely used things in baking but I do tend to use up most spices I own now within a year or 2 at the most. but those few things I only use a teaspoon of a year I'm not going to spend $40 a year on spices I used once or twice a year.

Add me to the list of people who thaw meat on the counter (or in the sink!). I grew up with my mom doing this, so I like to think I have built up an immunity to any potential bacteria. I'm just not good at remembering to take things out of the freezer, and I've never mastered microwave thawing...it always gets cooked around the edges!

I *always* wear new clothes without washing first! I want at least one experience of wearing them while they look and feel exactly the way they did in the store.

I also put sheets on the bed without washing them. My MIL was aghast. My DH and I washed one set first, and then decided, we also want one night of sleeping on them while they're extra crisp. I guess we'll get Alzheimers or something from breathing in the factory fumes overnight for a week.

I do wash towels first, bcs of the fuzz.

My MIL lets meat thaw on the counter, AND she lets it sit for hours on the counter after she's cooked it.